Marketing Bites: The Business Card

One might think that in this technologically obsessed world in which we live that the Business Card is now defunct.

One might even assume that people aren’t interested in collecting business cards at all. They’ll just bump phones with you and get your contacts that way. Alternatively they might connect with you on LinkedIn before you even meet and collect your details that way.

It’s Me, Business Card selected as one of the Best Business Card Designs from Paste Magazine
Best Business Card Designs from Paste Magazine

In her article titled ‘Business Cards are Dead and Here’s Why‘ J Maureen Henderson discusses how the working world has changed. She states that

‘Business cards don’t reflect the increasingly transient nature of employment and the iterative nature of our career identities. Tenure at a given job is decreasing, especially for Millennials, who have already earned a rep as notorious job hoppers. The card someone hands you today could lead to a disconnected phone line or a dead email address tomorrow.

Have business cards from startups in your rolodex that are more than six months old? If that company is still in business (and that’s a big if), it’s likely pivoted three times and changed its name at least twice.’

Design smarts, relationship smarts: Same/same

IDEO is a pretty great place to work if you like a bit of variety in your day. Over the past ten years, I’ve been lucky enough to tackle challenges in just about every industry under the sun — health care, hospitality, food and beverage, retail, government, wellness, technology, media, apparel…the list goes on.

You’d think design solutions across these categories would be radically different. But the funny thing is, they’re not.

Sure, the products or services we design are different for each industry. Hotel-y stuff for hotels, retail-y stuff for retail. But the design principles behind the solutions are often shockingly similar.

Turns out, one of the most important things we offer our clients is a crash course in interpersonal relationships. Because succeeding in business is a lot like succeeding in life: People tend to like you more when you’re kind and thoughtful.